Thursday, October 16, 2014

Combating The Republican National Fear Campaign?

First published in DelawareLiberal on 10/16/2014 by ProgressivePopulist

It is well understood by communications experts that fear is an
extremely powerful emotion to reverse. The RNC is executing a powerful
national campaign of fear, based mostly on ISIL and Ebola. It is
grounded in their national and local messaging strategy that government
doesn't work, especially an Obama/Pelosi government.

The DNC, by
our own Chair's pronouncement a few months back, has no national
branding or messaging strategy. Premise for the 2014 cycle...all
politics are local. That premise has been pretty well debunked a few
years back with the Gingrich Contract With America campaign.

So,
the DNC's major message to us, without reminders as to the central idea
our party stands for, send money. Lots of it. Send more money. Our
fear message? The Republicans are coming. Some of it is actually being
used by local Democratic campaigns to denounce their own party and its
accomplishments of late.

So, America, be very much afraid. No
reminders from the DNC that we have mostly contained radical Islam to
their middle eastern back yard and kept you safe in your own American
back yard and are vigilant on that mission. No reminders that Ebola is
contained in west Africa and we are actively assisting infected
countries to contain the disease there and bolstering our defenses here.

Yes,
memories are short. America is seldom reminded that in the meantime,
this Democratic President and a Democratic congress literally saved the
world economy from collapse, introduced monumental healthcare reform to
provide care for millions previously abandoned, ended two horrific wars
and has made great progress toward restoring a job market that was in
collapse.

The national media, even alternative and social media
has been allowed to fixate on fear, relentless fear mongering on ISIL
and Ebola, with an ineffective PR and public information effort from
the DNC and our Administration.

Local media has been bombarded
with disparate and uncoordinated Democratic candidate and pathetically
little local Party messaging on a myriad of issues, largely overwhelmed
by the audience/readership building stories about ISIL and Ebola. In
the meantime, local Republican messaging programs have been much better
synced with the RNC messaging program.

Save a possible "October
Surprise" from the Obama Administration, I see little prospect of
averting a Republican bloodbath and little prospect of a sizable
Democratic turnout. Maybe the magical new targeting vehicles to
mobilize our Democratic majority will kick in with highly motivating
messages to get us off our couches. But less than a month out, I see
and read little evidence of this.
There's plenty of evidence that fear will mobilize the Republican base and paralyze some of the Democratic base.

About Me

Moved to Wilmington, Delaware in mid-2013. Resided in Houston, Texas for 45 years. A widower, married Julie Jackson in 2007. Retired as a hospital marketing consultant in 2001.Have been a Democratic Party political activist for most of my adult life, organizing and mobilizing for the Party and its candidates. Consider myself a progressive populist. Early career included running communications for 35 campaigns. Have formed and led committees dealing with voter mobilization and precinct organizing, counter voter suppression and strategy.Co-founded the Progressive Populist Caucus of the Texas Democratic Party. Have served on the Texas Democratic Party Platform Committee numerous times. Also an active organizer for the anti-war movement since Vietnam and was active in the civil rights movement.